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Swallowtail Plant

Christia obcordata

Swallowtail Plant
Photo: Raffi Kojian, CC BY-SA 3.0

Christia obcordata is a scrambling perennial or subshrub in the pea family, known for its butterfly-shaped leaves, and it is grown mainly as a curiosity or medicinal plant. Its key to growing is warm, humid, bright conditions with support for its climbing stems.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Shrub, Climber
Light
Part shade, Bright indirect
Water
Keep soil evenly moist during the growing season and let the top layer dry slightly before watering again.
Soil
Well-drained, peaty or loamy potting mix with some organic matter.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 15 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Trop. & Subtrop. Asia
Climate
wet tropical

About

Christia obcordata is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. The plant is notable for its butterfly-shaped leaves. C. obcordata is used medicinally in Japan and Indonesia to treat urinary blockages. It was also evaluated as a means to treat malaria in 2007, but was found to be ineffective.

Other Christia plants

East Indian Island Pea

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Christia obcordata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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